


Stair Stumble

by HR4



Category: Spooks | MI-5
Genre: Accidents, Engagement, F/M, Gen, Love, Romance, Stairs
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-12-29
Updated: 2013-12-29
Packaged: 2018-01-06 14:49:48
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 3
Words: 3,735
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1108131
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/HR4/pseuds/HR4
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Ruth is late to work, and she accidentally falls down her stairs. A little shaken and bruised, can Harry comfort her, and will they find their way to each other.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

Glancing at the clock, Ruth sighed. She was really late, and she’d never been late to the grid in her life, but she would be today. She opened her wardrobe and swore under her breath. It was empty of everything suitable for work, and she hadn’t done any washing in ages. She opened several drawers and found a navy skirt to her relief, so she zipped it up, and then her phone rang while she was trying to find a presentable blouse.

"Yes?" she said breathlessly answering her mobile, still looking around for a shirt.

"Are you okay, Ruth?" Harry asked hearing that she was flustered.

"Yes, I'm fine," she said, trying to ignore the way her heart rate increased when she knew who was calling her. She couldn’t help it, when Harry spoke directly to her, her heart always skipped a beat. "What's wrong, Harry?"

"Nothing really," Harry said. "I was just wondering how on earth everyone managed to get on the grid before you." Ruth picked her watch up and fastened it around her wrist, seeing that it was already ten past nine. Her stupid alarm clock hadn't bothered to go off this morning and she had only been awake for five minutes.

"I'm sorry," Ruth said. "I overslept. My alarm clock decided to spontaneously break so I've only just woken up. I'll get into work as soon as I can and I‘ll make up the time later in the day."

"Take your time," Harry said easily. "I just wanted to make sure you were okay."

"Yeah," she replied, trying to make her heart stop flipping over at his concern. "I'll see you soon."

"Bye Ruth," Harry said putting the phone down. Ruth glanced around, knowing she had to hurry. She found a dark shirt which didn’t look too bad or un-ironed, and threw it on. Ruth hated being late at the best of times, and feeling groggy and wanting to go back to bed wasn’t the best of times. She took a final look in her mirror and decided that she was presentable enough. She grabbed her bag and then raced down the stairs but she failed to notice her cat lying stretched across one of the top steps. Ruth tried to slow down but Fidget suddenly moved, causing Ruth to trip over her own feet. Before she knew what had happened she had tumbled to the bottom of the stairs in a heap of twisted limbs.

Ruth collected herself after a minute. Nothing seemed to be broken, she summarised as she stretched carefully. She had hit her head quite hard and she knew that she was going to have a black eye develop later in the day. The skin around her eyebrow was throbbing and she touched it gingerly. Yep, a black eye would be a certainty. She had also taken off the top layer of skin on her right arm. That was going to be sore too. She stood up and saw Fidget looking very sheepish on the stairs. He meowed quietly as if looking for forgiveness.

"It's okay," Ruth said quietly, stroking him between the ears, like he liked. "I should watch where I'm going. I'll see you later." Ruth straightened herself out and locked the door behind her as she left.

She emerged on the grid half an hour later, feeling well and truly bruised and more than a little stupid. Ruth moved behind her desk and began reading through today's files. Nothing too terrible seemed on the cards so far. Harry came out of his office and looked at the whole team.

"Meeting room," he said briefly. There was a quick shuffling of papers as everyone followed Harry into the room. Ruth sat right next to Harry as was her habit and everyone else slowly came in.

"We have a warning of a bomb attack in central London," Harry said briefly.

"Time frame?" Ruth asked.

"Within the next five hours," Harry replied. "The group that say this attack will take place are calling themselves the Freedom from Oppression Movement. Ruth, can you find out how serious these people are and if they really have the power to detonate a bomb in London."

"Sure," Ruth replied scribbling on her notepad. Harry's eyes saw that her arm had a massive red bruising running from her wrist to her elbow as she wrote. He drew his eyes away from her and carried on addressing the other members of the team.

"Beth and Dimitri, you try and scout out possible bomb locations. Put airports and train stations on high alert and anything that looks suspicious in the last twenty four hours, investigate until you can prove it has nothing to do with our bombers." Harry then turned to their resident boy wonder.

"Tariq, you run traces on phone call warning that we received," Harry said briefly. "However I strongly suspect it came from a public phone box so also check CCTV at all phone boxes in London at five minutes past nine this morning. We need to know who made the warning call and why."

Everyone got up to leave but Harry threw Ruth a look which said "stay there" louder than words ever could. She didn’t move a muscle, because if Harry wanted to talk to her in private, she’d listen more than willingly. As Beth shut the door behind her Ruth looked at Harry.

"Is there a problem?"

"What happened to your arm?" Harry said quickly. Ruth cast her eyes down and could see that the red marks were vividly clear.

"Oh, nothing," Ruth said quickly. "I'm fine."

"It doesn't look like nothing, Ruth," Harry said quietly. She moved to get up, not wanting to discuss it but he wasn’t accepting that. He held her wrist gently but firmly, looking at the marks on her arm more closely. "What happened?" She looked into his eyes and she knew that she wasn't going to be let off of the hook.

"I was rushing, trying to get into work," Ruth started. "I tripped over my cat and I fell down the stairs." She blushed at her own stupidity. The one person she didn’t want to look like a idiot in front of, and she’d just told him that she couldn’t even make it out of her house without major incident.

"Oh, Ruth," he said quietly. "Are you okay?"

"Yes I'm fine," she replied quickly. "Really. Shall we stop worrying about my self inflicted injuries and focus on stopping the devastation from an unknown bomb?"

"Yes," Harry said. He let go of her wrist reluctantly. Ruth let her arm swing by her side and she left Harry alone to begin her research. He watched her leave the room and sighed wistfully, wishing that, just once, she‘d let him in.

\-------

Ruth could feel herself tensing as she waited for Dimitri to speak over the radio. They’d found the bomb with mere seconds to go and then Dimitri spoke, making her relax. Disarmed. Thank God for that. Just a normal day at work, she thought bitterly.

Harry watched her carefully. As soon as the bomb was safe Tariq had left the grid to get some coffee. He said a caffeine jolt was just what he needed after avoiding national disaster, and not the rubbish instant stuff they had on the grid. Lucas and Beth had been out in the field with Dimitri which left Ruth and Harry alone on the grid. Now that the threat of the bomb had passed they started feeling uncomfortable in each others presence. Alone. They’d not spent a great deal of time alone, if you didn’t count operational conversations, which Ruth didn’t.

Ruth touched her eye gently. She was willing to bet good money that it had come out in a horrible purple bruise by now. She turned and looked at Harry who was much closer to her than she expected.

"Oh, Ruth," he said quietly, voice filled with sadness. "Your face."

"Yes, I know," she said looking at the floor. "Trust me I'll never fall down the stairs again, I feel like hell." They looked at each other for a long moment. Then the pods whirred and Tariq came back, tray of coffee in hand. He was closely followed by Beth.

"My office," he said quietly to Ruth. She smiled briefly at the deep tone, a cross between a demand and a request. She followed him, closing the door behind her, without thinking too much about it.

"Do you think you should go to the doctor?" Harry asked, his voice full of concern.

"It’s just bumps and bruises, Harry," Ruth said honestly. "Anyway, what would you have done today without me?" she asked only half joking.

"I don't know, Ruth," he said seriously. Ruth suddenly felt very uncomfortable, trapped in a room with Harry. It was too close and Harry was far too immediate, as if all the oxygen had been sucked out of the room. Harry suddenly moved and unlocked one of his desk draws. He took something out and placed it on the desk. Ruth looked at the small object confused.

"I always imagined you wearing it Ruth," Harry said quietly. Ruth suddenly realised what must be in the box. An engagement ring.

"Harry…" Ruth started, the tension in the room becoming massively increased by that small action, but he interrupted.

"I love you," he said simply. "Promise me you'll think about it." Ruth found herself unable to speak so she just nodded instead. The tiny little box seemed to be magnifying in size but she couldn't bring herself to reach out and touch it. As if that would make it real. She nodded again and hurried out of his office. She couldn't sit still so she left the grid, heading to the outside streets of London, breathing heavily.


	2. Chapter 2

Everything she wanted was within her reach. If she'd only say yes. Why was she so afraid? She knew how he felt about her. The way he looked at her and the things he had just said made that perfectly clear. Why could she never confront her fears? And what was she so afraid of in the first place? Maybe letting another person get so close to her. Because if she ever lost him, she didn't know if she'd be able to recover. The way she had Harry now was manageable. Because he was a constant presence in her life and she thought about him every few seconds if she were being honest. But without having a relationship with him, she was still protected, should he change his mind and decide she wasn't worth the effort, or worse, if he died. If she jumped in feet first, she was risking having her heart unbelievably hurt further down the line. But was that a good reason to hold back? She closed her eyes and concentrated on breathing in and out slowly. It was a lot more difficult than it should have been.

\-------

Harry sat behind his desk and felt incredibly stupid. She'd already said no once. Why on earth would he think that she would give a different answer now? What had possessed him? He glanced at his watch and thought that it was a perfectly acceptable time of day for a whisky. A large whisky. He spent a long moment looking at the small box which held the engagement ring. He felt like such an idiot. He should have waited. What was wrong with asking her to dinner? Why did he think proposing at work would be the best way to sweep Ruth off of her feet. Totally stupid, especially as Ruth was the type of person who thought absolutely everything through. He put the box in his pocket and waited for something to happen. Or nothing to happen as he downed the fortifying whisky.

Hours later Harry still sat in his office. He had been waiting for Ruth to come back but she never had. The grid was now totally empty. Harry sighed and decided she wasn't going to come back at all. Not today, maybe not ever. He was feeling depressed and sorry for himself and he knew it. But he couldn’t stop feeling that way either. He looked around the grid for a final time, looking for her even if he didn’t let himself think that was the reason and he left, going down to the car he knew would be waiting for him.

\-------

Ruth had been sitting in a café drinking tea. She had needed time to think everything through and that would be impossible to do anywhere near the grid. Or anywhere near Harry. After a long afternoon of thought she realised it was too late to go back to work. She needed to see Harry so before she could back out, she took a taxi to his house. She rung the door bell but there was no answer. She guessed he wasn't home yet so she sat on the doorstep. She was actually glad of the extra time so she could think of what she would say when Harry got there. The cold wind was rather invigorating too, and she let it blow against her skin, and to her throbbing eye it was a soothing balm.

\-------

Harry felt awful as he was driven home. He had well and truly blown it with Ruth. Again. Harry could feel the car slowing down and he wasn't exactly looking forward to yet another evening alone. He got out of the car and was amazed and annoyed when he saw someone sitting outside his house. He was not in the mood to be interrupted tonight. His irritation vanished when the person stood up and he recognised her figure. He’d recognise her anywhere, her hair brushing against the collar of her coat in the light breeze.

"Ruth," he said quietly. He couldn't think of a single thing to say to her, and standing gaping at her like a fish wasn’t an attractive option either.

"Can I come in?" Ruth asked after he hadn't moved or said anything for two minutes.

"Yes, of course," Harry said quietly. He unlocked the door and Ruth followed him into the kitchen where Harry poured another whisky for himself. He felt he was going to need it. Ruth looked very uncomfortable.

"Why are you here?" Harry asked after a moment. The light showed her face in sharp relief. It was completely white except for the purple bruise on her eye. He would have given anything to hold her when she looked that fragile and delicate. As if the wrong gust of wind could break her. He knew she was a strong woman, but right now she didn’t look like it.

"I've been thinking," Ruth started. "I meant to come back and finish our conversation but I lost track of time. So I ended up here." She paused, fiddling with a strand of hair while she tried to word what was on her mind. Harry watched her carefully as her blue eyes darted around the room. They finally settled on him.

“Look, proposing to me, when you have is terrible,” she said simply. “Your timing is awful.”

“Yes,” he agreed.

“We’ve had one date in… what? Four years? That is not a basis for marriage, Harry,” she said, shaking her head. “Not the kind of marriage I want anyway.”

“Okay,” Harry said. “Fine.” She felt her heart sink as she looked at him. That look meant “I’m going straight for the whisky the second you leave.” That look on his face broke her heart. On instinct she reached for his palm and squeezed it gently.

"That said, I wanted to tell you, that I don't make the same mistake twice," she said simply. Harry stared at her. Did she mean what he hoped she meant? Could she possibly mean it?

"Ruth…?" Harry said quietly. She smiled a tiny smile that made his heart skip a beat.

"At Ros's funeral," Ruth said quietly. "What I said to you… I meant it at the time, but I never meant it to be all or nothing." She was not used to discussing her feelings like this and she couldn't control the blush that stained her cheeks. Harry couldn't tear his eyes away from her. “I want you,” she said quietly. “I always have. I’ve just been a bit too afraid to admit it."

“Are you sure about what you’re saying?” he asked, his own voice sounding hoarse to his own ears.

“I think marriage… for us… right now would be wrong. But I don’t want to say no to you either. I want to say one day. Is that okay?”

He smiled at her, a truly happy smile she’d so rarely seen on his face which had her heart soaring. He nodded, convinced he was dreaming. He got the tiny box out of his pocket as he walked closer to her. "Marry me," he said quietly, opening the box for her. Ruth found herself smiling as she looked at the beautiful diamond ring. “Marry me, one day. Promise me that one day we’ll get there, and you’ll be mine.”

"Yes," she said simply. Harry smiled, he couldn't help it. Those three letters made him happier than he had been in a long time. Maybe ever. He took the ring out of its box and slipped it onto Ruth's finger. “No,” she said, pulling her hand back. “Not yet.”

“Indulge me,” he said. “Please. Even if you only wear it for a minute or two.”

She nodded as he settled the ring on her finger and his touch lingered on her skin once it was there. He didn't want to let her go.

"Harry," Ruth started quietly. He looked up from her newly decorated hand and looked into her startlingly blue eyes. He couldn't believe this was happening. He leant closer to her and gently kissed her on the lips. He could tell that she was smiling.

\-------

"Ruth?"

"Mm?" she replied sleepily.

"Are you happy?"

"I'd be even happier if I could sleep in peace," Ruth replied with her eyes still shut. She laughed quietly as Harry started to kiss her neck gently, tongue and lips gently pressing against her skin in a wonderfully erotic way. She didn't think she had ever been happier in her life.

"You haven't changed your mind yet?" Harry asked as she opened her eyes. He was only half joking. Ruth kissed him in a gentle and slow morning kiss.

"No," she said. "Although I bet I look like hell," Ruth said. "Covered in bruises because I can't even walk down a flight of stairs properly."

"You've never been more beautiful," Harry whispered.

"Oh I doubt that's true," Ruth said trying to keep the tone light.

"Don't argue with me," Harry said firmly.

"Isn't that what we do best?" Ruth said smiling a smile of remembrance. Harry grinned too. He reached for her hand with her engagement ring on. He started to take it off her finger. Despite what she'd said last night, she hadn't taken it off. It had stayed exactly where Harry had put it.

"No," Ruth said making a fist with her hand. "What are you doing? You can't have it back!" Harry smiled at her reaction.

"I just wanted to show you something," Harry said as she slowly unclenched her fist. He took the ring off and showed her the inside.

"You had it engraved," Ruth said surprised. It read in a small flowing script "Harry and Ruth. Always." It was a simple message but the fact that he had gone to this trouble, just for her, touched her heart. How long had it been there, just waiting for her? Waiting for them to get their acts together?

"Thank you," Ruth whispered slipping the ring back on her finger, where it belonged. She looked into Harry's eyes, looking a lighter hazel than she had ever seen them, looking at him for a long minute. She didn't want to turn away.

"I love you," she said quietly. Harry didn't reply, he just put an arm around her waist and pulled her closer to him. He needed to have her in his arms. And for once, it really was that simple.


	3. One Year Later

"No," Ruth said firmly. She was lying in bed and totally refused to move, the tangled white sheets wrapped around her naked body.

"Come on, Ruth," Harry said as he was doing up his tie. He looked at the pile of bedclothes which was his wife in the mirror as he straightened his collar. "What am I possibly going to do on the grid without you?"

"Well, that's too bad," Ruth said sharply, the tone somewhat muffled by a pillow. "I'm sure you'll manage. You managed without me before didn't you?"

"Not well," Harry said honestly. "And I don't like to remember the three years that I had to live without you."

"Guilting me into it won't work either," Ruth said, trying to forget about her exile too. It was unpleasant for many reasons, the main one being away from Harry.

"Hard woman," Harry grumbled, smiling at her in the mirror.

"In my defence, you knew what I was like before you married me," Ruth said easily, propping herself up on one elbow.

"Well, that's true," Harry said raising his eyebrows making Ruth laugh. Harry leant over her and kissed her for a long minute. Then he protectively put his hand over her swollen stomach. As he did so he felt the baby kicking lightly. Ruth smiled at him brightly, eyes glinting in the morning sunlight streaming through their bedroom window as they enjoyed this private moment between the two of them. Between the three of them.

"The doctor told me to take it easy," Ruth reminded him. "You know I won't be doing that if I'm in Thames House. I‘ll be worrying and stressing, which isn’t good for the baby."

"Yes, I know," Harry said. "Take care of her while I'm gone," he added quietly, kissing her again. Ruth smiled as she watched her husband leave their bedroom. She stayed perfectly still until she heard the front door close and the alarm beep as Harry set it. Once alone, she put both her hands over her stomach and felt happier than she thought she had any right to be. Before rolling over and going back to sleep.

**Author's Note:**

> Another re polished story. Enjoy, and leave a review if you have a moment. Thanks for reading.


End file.
